Employee Discipline: New York

Federal law and guidance on this subject should be reviewed together with this section.

Author: Christine Zebrowski, Overbrook Law LLC

Summary

• New York nondiscrimination laws tend to be much broader than federal antidiscrimination requirements. See New York Human Rights Laws.
• New York prohibits retaliation against employees for a number of protected activities, including disclosing or threatening to disclose to a supervisor or public body certain violations of law that create a substantial danger to the public health or safety. See Additional Retaliation Protections.
• New York prohibits employers from taking any retaliatory personnel action based on an employee's reproductive health decision-making. See Reproductive Health Decisions.
• New York employers may limit, to an extent, workplace discussions of wages. See Workplace Discussions of Wages.
• Employers may not administer, request or permit any employee to take a lie detector test or other psychological stress evaluator examination. See Lie Detector Tests.
• New York employers may test employees for drug and alcohol use. See Testing Employees for Alcohol and Drug Use.
• New York regulates the use of cannabis (marijuana). See Cannabis.
• Employers may not discharge or otherwise discriminate against employees for engaging in lawful activities outside of work without the use of employer equipment or other property, except in a few limited circumstances. See Off-Duty Conduct.
• New York law provides for certain recordkeeping requirements that may affect disciplinary matters. See Recordkeeping Requirements.
• New York recognizes the claim of false imprisonment as one for personal injury. See False Imprisonment.
• Under New York law, with limited exceptions, employers may not discriminate on the basis of a prior criminal conviction. See Use of Criminal Convictions as a Basis for Discipline.
• Private employers are not restricted in the same way as government employers when conducting workplace searches. See Employee Privacy, Searches and Surveillance.
• New York is a one-party consent state. See Wiretapping and Recording of Phone Calls.
• New York law regulates certain areas related to the protection of intellectual property. See Protection of Intellectual Property.
• Localities including New York City, Suffolk County and Westchester County have laws pertaining to employee discipline. See Local Requirements.